Saturday, August 20, 2011

Whitestone Farms cleaned up

UPDATE 8/21/11: It already is the law that all property owners are responsible for maintaining their property. Enforcing the law is what's lacking. Graffiti may not be their fault, but it's their responsibility.

All property owners are also eligible for free graffiti cleaning - with or without consent - courtesy of the taxpayers thanks to the misguided actions of the City Council and the mayor. (Has graffiti gotten better or worse since this law took effect last year?)

This entire clean up was not necessary, so who takes responsibility for it is pretty moot. What should have been highlighted by all parties involved is that the city's automatic graffiti removal program failed here as well as in a lot of other locations yet we taxpayers are paying through the nose for it while losing library hours and teachers.

Direct your anger at the government rather than at a news crew more often and maybe you'll see things start to improve.

What the Hell, this wasn't a clean up, it was part of a competition for WPIX News called The Ugly House Contest, only thing is all the assholes like me didn't know, we thought we were helping a new civic group beautify our neighborhood, instead we were all part of Monica Cleaning Crew. FUCK YOU, Welcome to Whitestone!

On July 23rd - Civic Leader wrote:"We also ask that all Elected Officials, and Civic Leaders, do whatever is in their power to have this EYESORE cleaned up."Alfredo CentolaPresidentMalba Gardens Civic Association

On August 18th, it was done. What is the issue? This is a good news story.

... we thought we were helping a new civic group beautify our neighborhood, instead we were all part of Monica Cleaning Crew. FUCK YOU,...

...You thought you were helping a new civic group beautify your neighborhood and not that you were being used by Halloran & O'Connor for a photo op?

Small mind addled brained attitudes like this are why communities like Whitestone are ignored by politicians who are higher up on the food chain.

If this were Park Slope, Bushwick, Williamsburg, or any part of Manhattan many more volunteers would have been working to beautify the neighborhood. But the slack jawed dim-wits of Whitestone would rather complain than improve their surroundings. Dunces all.

There may be grounds for a class action against Welcome to Whitestone for misrepresenting this WPIX 11 news project. This type a behavior must be punished. Halloran and Welcome to Whitestone has betrayed the public trust. This is a very important issue and not to be taken lightly. I fill sorry for the many local volunteers that worked so very hard that day, they have been used unfairly.

DId anyone see that car accident that happened during the clean up? I hope no one was badly hurt. What a dangerous corner...and so close to an elementary school. Can you imagine what it will be like when the 700 OCCUPANCY CATERING HALL OPENS UP!!And whats going on with that one way??

I was a part of the welcome to whitestone clean up but now we know we were only used for a reality show. I never agreed to be filmed for this ugly house contest.Any lawyers out there that can give us some advice? I was one of fifty volunteers at the now known as the August 18 Monicas ugly house makeover for a PIX 11 news show.

Al, you are wrong on this one but you may not know the story behind what welcome to whitestone and halloran did. This was not right. The folks thought they were doing service to help the neighborhood, not being extras in a TV contest.. Please speak out against this.

Do you folks watch channel 11 news? The house contest is just called that as a joke. There is no competition and no prize, just a stunning array of neglected properties featured. You were filmed doing an action in public. There was no permission required. Be happy that you did some good and have a great weekend.

"just reinforces the dangerous notion that nothing can be done - or is important and worth doing - unless a politician benevolently looks over things and gives it his blessing - "You forgot one part- it must be IN FRONT OF A CAMERA.

No crappy, we don't watch channel 11 news, because the TV news is total shit. I see some of the clips you post here, it's not reporting, it's spin stories and sensationalism geared at getting ratings from the sheep. Ironically the same sheep railed against on this blog and in the comments.

Shame on welcome to whitestone for not disclosing that this was going to be a tv news fluff piece.

It's spin stories or sensationalism. Quite a few of their stories are taken from this blog. So are you saying the blog is shit? The place got cleaned up because someone sent it into the blog. Channel 11 saw it on the blog and followed up. That caught the attention of the council member who saw an opportunity for positive PR and to stick it to the Malba group that brought attention to it in the first place.

The push by Al Centola was for City Councilman Dan Halloran to propose legislation or use current laws to have the absentee landlord clean up his own mess, not use this as a photo-op for the councilman or use public money AGAIN to clean up this mess. Pull your head out of Wharton Properties ass and do the right thing in your life just once Dan! Nobody buys this charade.

I was one of the fifty volunteers at the august 18th whitestone graffiti clean up. I have been actively involved with most projects and neighborhood events that the welcome to whitestone civic has sponsored within the passed year. Before each event, a press release is sent to all media outlets and pubic officials, that is it, no prearranged interviews or conversations take place. WPIX 11 as well as several local newspaper reporters arrived to cover the Framers Market clean up, (not the separate issue of the owners responsibly in cleaning up his own property), on this day whitestone residents took matters into there own hands, picked up a paintbrush and got to work. Unfortunately. Monica Morales and WPIX 11 created a story about something they had nothing to do with, she implied her team organized and executed this project, that is a total falsehood. She even accepted thanks from a local resident and posted his comments on the pix11.com web site. To quote one of your bloggers, "News people should report the news not take credit for it." welcome to whitestone and malba gardens civics are the only "ACTIVE" civics in this community working hard to represent the residents and business of whitestone. This community does not need the help of a self promoting, news manipulating television reporter seizing local stories. Not cool! And my friends, that is the real story.

You people seem not to realize that this was an eyesore in the community for years and none of the civics or electeds did a damn thing about it until it was on channel 11. So yeah, the news station deserves credit.

Oh please, look at what is really going on in Whitestone, We finally have a driver at the wheel, Devon O'Connor, he is getting things done and this lazy ass town just don't like it. Why do you think Halloran was there? Anyone from Malba Gardens in this photo opp? Don't think so. Just give the kid some credit or do things yourself.

Who did organize this clean up, WPIX, Dan Halloran, The Whitestone Taxpayers Civic, Malba Gardens Civic ,Welcome to Whitestone Civic or someone else? If anyone knows, there is were the deserved credit goes. Bye the way, it looks good.

BTW, Devon O'Connor is the "civic leader" puppet of Halloran and Paul Vallone. This is a phony group which I predict will dissolve as soon as Halloran departs office, unless Vallone wins the seat. You see, the other civics don't put up with Halloran's shit, so he needed to create a fake group to make it look like he can actually work with the community. Notice how O'Connor supported Halloran's outrageous position on the White House Restaurant. See Dennis Gallagher's phony Glendale Civic and Middle Village-Maspeth Civic circa 2007 for precedent. Are either of those still active?

Phony group, puppet civic or whatever. I live on 23rd. Ave. off FLB and two weeks ago Devon O'Conner himself rang my doorbell and every other bell on the block and asked us to come to the event to help start clean up Whitestone. A nice young man, only twenty years old, how refreshing, I never met any other civic leader in Whitestone. I didn't see Avella fans that day, talk about phony. All you need is the support of the people, I believe Mr. O'Conner has it.

This is what I find amazing about this whole non-debate: you folks actually think that spending taxpayer money to bail out developers is acceptable. The other civics could have organized a cleanup, sure. But civics with balls hold owners responsible for the mess and leaders with balls push them to clean it up themselves. The City should not be wasting money on paint, etc. If the City feels compelled to clean up a site, they should put a lien on the property for the cost of the paint and should not forgive fines. You may see other civics organizing graffiti cleanups on public property but rarely on private property because that would be sending the wrong message. At the end of the report, Monica says, "Let this be a warning..." To whom? The property owner? You just did him a big favor!

Re: Phony Civics - What the hell are you talking about, Halloran is a Republican and Vallone is a Democrat, that would make O'Connor, I guess, an Independent. If he is able to have a working relationship with both major parties maybe, in time, he can stop all the partisan crap and get something done. So far he looks good. The only phony in this discussion is you. Queens Crap, great job, keep up the good work

Someone's a bit naive. Halloran at one point was almost replaced by Vallone on the GOP ticket. it was reported right here on this blog. Now daddy Vallone is working on getting Dan a judgeship so Paul can take the seat in a special election. Devon fits quite nicely into the whole scheme.

Both Welcome to Whitestone and Halloran have this on their pages. Neither mention what the commenters here have complained about. So I suppose you were all duped by a politician, a wannabe politician and the news media. And it already is the law that all property owners are responsible for maintaining their property. Enforcing the law is what's lacking. Graffiti may not be their fault, but it's their responsibility. All property owners are also eligible for free graffiti cleaning - with or without consent - courtesy of the taxpayers thanks to the misguided actions of the City Council and the mayor. (Has graffiti gotten better or worse since this law took effect last year?) The entire clean up was not necessary, so who takes responsibility for it is pretty moot. What should have been highlighted by all parties involved is that the city's automatic graffiti removal program failed here as well as in a lot of other locations yet we taxpayers are paying through the nose for it while losing library hours and teachers.

Direct your anger at the government rather than at a news crew more often and maybe you'll see things start to improve.

I liked the wpix news story what was wrong with it, the girl was good. maybe the welcome to whitestone graffiti people can get the paint off willets point and 154 street. Its a mess over on that corner.

would you please name and detail the "other civics" and their meetings that you attended where officials mouthed these words ?

i make civic requests of CM Halloran and they are always followed up on, even though the n.y.c. democrat dictatorship leaders claim that we have "NO MONEY LEFT". WHAT THEY REALLY ARE SAYING IS , NO MONEY FOR A COMMUNITY THAT VOTED FOR A CONSERVATIVECANDIDATE.

we are very anxious now about the puppet civics, is all this legal. my husband and I have just donated $36,500.00. they all told us they need that amount we did not know it is under his control.what can we do.

how can you have a sit down with a group like welcome to whitestone. no office, no phone and no contact information what so ever. this is not a civic, civic groups do things for the community, events, fundraisers, things like that. everybody just join malba gardens.

The issue is that a Councilperson is a legislator who is supposed to introduce or use current legislation to help the community he reperesents and not pick and choose which private property owner he will give taxpayer dollars for improving his private property. Halloran has chosen to prmopte himself and O'Connor and use tax dollars to do it. In the mean time the ownerwho is affiliated as a principal with a large manhattan brokerage, developer and property manager with millions of dollars at his disposal gets a free pass.

Stop crapping on welcome to whitestone. Devon, helped me fill out an appeal from a high water bill. At first I asked the greater taxpayers for help, they said "call 311". My friend, Tammy said call Mr. O'Connor, the young man cares, I think the people should know. Thank you, for posting this reply.

pay your dues, and become a member for the improvement of your community.all residents in the civic boundries are welcome. be ready to act, not just attend. no one is paid to form the group.the officers should not be in the palms of the politicians.

ALFREDO CENTOLA AND THE MALBA GARDENS CIVIC GROUP BROUGHT THIS TO LIGHT AND DEVON JUMPED ON THE OPPORTUNITY TO GET A PHOTO OP WITH HIS PUPPETMASTER HALLORAN. WE AT MGCA WERE NEVER NOTIFIED . YES IT WAS CLEANED UP AND THAT WAS THE POINT, HOWEVER I WOULD LIKE TO THANK AL AND ALL HIS HARD WORK. WE MISS YOU

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